Dir.
Neil Armsfield, 2005, Australia, 108 mins
Cast: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Tony Martin
and Noni Hazlehurst
Review by Hemanth Kissoon
“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose
a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television,
choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical
tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental
insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose
a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and
matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase
in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who
the fuck you are on Sunday night. Choose sitting on that
couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows,
stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting
away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable
home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish,
fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose
your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a
thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin'
else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons
when you've got heroin?”
Mark ‘Rent-boy’ Renton
(Ewan McGregor), Trainspotting.
Those iconic words helped define the
late 90s Brit pop culture hegemony for about four years
(1996-1999) and have echoed through every film about addiction
since: drugs are at first a glamorous, exciting escape
from the mundane but soon spiral into crime, humiliation
and pain. However, arguably the definitive film about the
fallout of drug addiction is the masterful Requiem for
a Dream, as truly a harrowing anti-drug film as you can
get. And by ‘drug film’ I don’t
mean people getting stoned on weed but getting high on Class
A.
With that in mind, Candy falls between many stools creating
a niche for itself. It is not balls-to-the-wall gut-wrenching
like Requiem, nor is it iconic as Trainspotting, it does
not aim to be cool like Spun, nor is it as epic as Traffic,
it is not a biopic like Blow, nor an adaptation of a modern
classic like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, nor is it zeitgeist-capturing
like Human Traffic, and not as dreamy as Little Fish.
Candy is about the metaphorical fall
from Eden. Structured in a Biblical analogy of Heaven,
Earth and Hell, watch as Cornish’s titular heroine
is seduced to taste the forbidden fruit (heroin), and given
it by boyfriend Dan (Ledger), who in an interesting gender
reversal is the Eve to her Adam. The snake is the always
impressive Rush as Casper the gifted chemistry professor,
who can extract the narcotic from his lab at the university
under the radar.
Set in an Australian suburb, budding
artist Candy falls for the poet Dan and their passion for
each other looms large. As their relationship deepens so
does their habit, turning from the recreational to full-blown
addiction before the audience’s eyes. Being an artist and a poet at the
start of promising careers, mean that the couple frequently
go to Candy’s parents for money and sponge drugs off
Casper, which eventually turns into prostitution and identity
theft. Their descent into hell could also be a cynical allegory
for all relationships?
The tone of the film shifts from whimsy
to darkness like the seasons from spring to winter. The
sense of foreboding is palpable. You know the couple will
fall but how far is palm-sweat inducing. The film does
not attempt flashy visuals, but just lets the story unfold
allowing a great cast to strut its stuff. Cornish, like
her role in Somersault, again is luminous, and looks and
moves like she is not of this world. Hopefully her next
few roles will prove her to be more than just ethereal.
Ledger keeps building on his ascending reputation with
a dislikeable yet not unsympathetic fall guy, and Rush
demands your attention with that voice of his whenever
he has a scene. Noni Hazlehurst, as Candy’s mother, better
watch out or she might get type-cast as ‘Aussie drug-mum’ after
a similar turn in the compelling Little Fish. All have come
together to portray the price of addiction and a broken family.
Not as tough going, many will be relieved, as Requiem for
a Dream, but Candy still leaves you with a bitter taste.
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